Evedale has taken a tough line because it claims private care homes in the city are not getting enough money from the council.

Mr Cahill predicts a further 200 beds will be lost in the city in the next three years.

Evedale's managers say the average #330 per week they receive per highly-dependent resident is way out of line with extra costs incurred through increased minimum wages, longer holidays and inflation.

The basic sum - made up of pension and council contributions - no longer covers the costs of care and led to Evedale, in Occupation Road, making a #100,000 loss last year.

Mr Cahill, aged 41, who now runs the luxury Warwick Gardens Care Home in Warwick Avenue, Earlsdon, has been campaigning on behalf of Choice since 1997.

He said: "Despite what some people think, we are not all secondhand car dealers who came into this business to make a profit.

"Before opening our first private care home I was a hospital radiographer and my wife Heidi was a state registered nurse.

"All of us are saddened but not surprised by the action taken by Evedale.

"It was inevitable somebody would have to make a stand. I'm sorry for the elderly people involved but Coventry City Council's current policy is stifling quality.

"Nobody could run a home properly for the amount they are prepared to pay.

"Nearly all of us in the private sector are having to ask relatives for 'top-up' fees. You simply cannot run a good home on the contributions the council makes which have only gone up 6.6 per cent in the past four years.

"Wages for cleaners and other domestic staff have risen by 30 per cent over the same period."

Other cost increases include extra holiday entitlements for which staff cover must be provided and the new minimum #4.20p an hour which comes into force in October.

He said: "This year Coventry City Council has offered just a #5 increase and now, grudgingly, perhaps we will get another fiver."

Because of the big house and gardens at Warwick Gardens, the Cahills say they have been pushed into offering an "elitist" level of care which requires top-up payments from many relatives of #39 per week.